X2 3600+ Overclock help/advice (AM2/Brisbane)

[Solitaire]

Yeah, I Searched, Googled, and checked there was no identical threads, but Search is still broken and overclocking the 3600+ seems to be something that is commonly theorized over, but never actually done let alone openly discussed for some reason!

That could be a bad sign in itself...

Anyways, I probably won't try to OC my system until my new not-too-cheap generic 550W PSU arrives (with that X1950Pro ), but I wanted to ask some questions before I get my hands dirty:

I've heard that squeezing some (much!) extra juice out of my "old" 3600+ is probably a good idea; it seems to be a happy camper - well, OC-er. This is good news given that even buying oldish hardware for an emergency upgrade (UT3 and SupComFA aren't happy at all with a 6600GT!) has stretched my budget and I want to recharge my funds and build a new box later rather than this minute.

I've heard that people have managed to juice them (I mean the Barcelona core, which I have) up to 3.1GHz; considering it starts life at 1.9GHz that's quite the eye-popper! But I'm only interested in a "budget" OC here, and I'm guessing a good chunk of that speed has something to do with liquid nitrogen :lol: What kind of speed gain could I hope to obtain with just a stock cooler and not punching Vcore too far into the stratosphere? And would it be worth my while blowing a few (and just a few) pennies on an aftermarket cooler, or are all the really cheap ones a pile of poop?

Also, what software tools are recommended for this job? AFAIK MSI doesn't have an OS-based OC program, and the highly recommended Everest turns out to be payware... I already have SpeedFan, CPU-Z and Orthos, what else is recommended?

We're talking about a cheap PoS mobo (MSI MS-7312) here BTW... this is going to be pretty fast for an AGP box by the time I'm finished, but even then it's not going to be that great in any way, shade or form; it's all about squeezing every last drop of blood out of a four-year old PC (albeit the only part that's still stock is the horrid case! :lol: ) before I give in and build a nice fast PCIe system with a fast BE or C2D and a 3870. Or whatever's mid-range in a few (or many) months time...

 

[Evilonigiri]

I'm quite sure a X2 3600+ is a Brisbane and not a Barcelona Maybe that'll help you with your search.

Overclocking a Brisbane is simple. All you have to do is raise the fsb, that's it I think. I have never overclocked an AMD so either google some more or wait for someone else to reply.

 

[Solitaire]

The Search feature seems to be broken - I already mentioned it in a more relevant thread for forum gripes - and I didn't even search the B-word, just x2 3600+ in general.

And the funny thing is that another thing I mentioned in the same post was how I (and from the sound of it a load of other members too!) can't edit my own posts, otherwise I would have fixed my "spelling error" by now. Only I can't fix the %$£&ing thing now! D'oh.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

The title of this topic has been edited by Jake_Barnes

 

[Solitaire]

Nice one Jake!

Oh well, guess the only way to find the max speed is to keep going backward from max stable speed until I get something that doesn't heat up badly...

Of course, if I don't ramp Vcore miles up then my best stable speed probably wont cook too bad even with a stock fan

 

[batigol]

Hey guys,

I am new to this overclocking thing. And I wonder how far can we push the limits and how?

My setup is,

Athlon X2 3600+ Brisbane (1.9GHz default)
1 GB DDR2 800 Twinmoss Ram CAS 5
Asus M3A Mainboard...

Currently My CPU is working fine @2.40Ghz without increasing the voltage
FSB:253Mhz
Multiplier:9,5
HT:1000Mhz
Memory:800 Mhz

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

What your gonna wanna do is drop your HT multiplier to 4x from 5x, this in turn will allow you to raise your FSB higher which means higher clock speed.

On my older socket 939 system, you would put the memory down lower than what it was supposed to run, IE, if say you had PC 3200, then you drop your memory to say 166 mhz FSB, which was the equivalent of PC2700. However, when you raised the FSB, it will force the memory to run faster, hence the reason for setting the memory to lower settings in the bios, and people searching for faster and faster memory.

But on AMD, more FSB=higher clock. But you consider HT multiplier, or HT Link as some will call it. The spec for that is 1000, typically AMD runs their chip with 5x HT Link. Here's the basic math

5x200(This is your fsb)=1000 HT Speed

The AMD chips don't like much over 1100 HT

So if you can do say

4x250

or 4 HT multiplier x 250 mhz fsb, then you still hit the HT speed of 100 and yield a higher clock speed. I think as long as the machine runs with HT of 850-1100 it will run. Of course you may have to tweak voltages, and what not, but also make sure to stress test for stability.

Hope this helps you out.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

PS, my 939 rig had a 3500+, I think I got it to 2.7 ghz and maybe 2.8, and it would boot and run, but I reset it to stock.

 

[orif]

PS, my 939 rig had a 3500+, I think I got it to 2.7 ghz and maybe 2.8, and it would boot and run, but I reset it to stock.

Please say more I have a 3500+ and I'd love more info on your overclocks